Session 3
Susan Perkins WLGA
Yesterday, within the context of your discussions, you talked about the opposition in the New World and here we are – we’ve moved into a new phase in Wales, a new chapter in Welsh Politics. We’ve moved towards a completely new set of relationships because of politics and rightly so.
Let’s reflect for a moment on the changes from 1999 to 2007. We’ve started off with a position of strictly limited powers, now we’re moving to new permissive powers of assembly, a full set of local government powers potentially. Minority government which has its own challenges but now coalition government which is a completely different animal, and of course, we have the One Wales Accord.
We have 22 local authorities, now we’re still looking at possible mergers. There’s no reason to assume by anybody that the position is going to remain the same for the foreseeable future. Emphasis on collaboration and the citizen model, moving more towards perhaps competition and user choice. Of course we had Sir Jeremy Beecham coming along, doing his review of public service delivery in Wales and now we have a vision of moving towards the seamless One Public Service and you’re part of that initiative. It could only get worse if it was raining crocodiles. About two weeks ago the WLGA sent out a briefing to people explaining what the predictions were in terms of the settlement this year for the next three year period actually. In real terms, taking out the 2.7 GDP deflator, what we were left with, in terms of predictions, was not 0.8% for 2008/09, 2 for 2009/10, 2.6 for 2010/11. The figures now appear to be in actual real terms -0.6%, -0.2%, and 0.1%. This is very, very bad news for local government.
Andrew Davies talked about a bonfire of the inefficiencies, well there’s no prize for guessing which effigy would have been on top of a bonfire this week. What seems to have happened is that the efficiencies that were required, a requirement of £600 million efficiencies by 2010 seems to have been top-sliced off local government.
The role of the association is basically as a representative body of the 22 unitary authorities, 4 police authorities, 3 fire and of course the three National Parks so you are a member of the association, you’re an important part of Welsh public life, I daresay say that the National Parks invoke more passion and loyalty and mystique and interest than perhaps a number of others, I know it’s hard to believe but probably most people don’t think about taking their holidays in Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council for example but they might go to Brecon Beacons, and they know about it, so actually your status and place in Welsh public life is extremely important and we do appreciate that within the Association. The role of the association is lobbying, finance, assembly relations, we act as a think-tank, policy development, improvement and regional partnership boards.
Now let’s reflect on the current challenges facing local authorities in Wales and back at the beginning of the summer the elected members (the leaders of the association) got together and had a really hard look at what it is that’s out there. When you think about local authorities, and the range of things that they have to cover, it’s quite astounding really. I’m not underestimating the role that you play and the number of things that feature in your daily lives as members and also chief executives and officers of the National Parks Authorities, but there are a vast range of things that you have to think about in local government and you have to prioritise and it is true that if everything is a priority, if you can’t decide what’s a priority then effectively nothing’s a priority. They had to decide on a number of key things that they wanted the Assembly to engage with us on to provide leadership, provide the wherewithal for local government to deliver because that’s what local government is best at doing.
Those really are the top five –
Waste - we have a huge problem with waste and it’s getting worse and worse and worse.
Housing – and the need for at least £3 billion to take the public housing stock up to the standards required by 2010. The whole debate about stock transfer and whether that can be affected, the need to consult with people, the deep passion that this invokes. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to affect.
Social Services – I remember many years ago as an embryo watching television and there was no mention about social services stuff was there? You know that there were problems with society but it didn’t have the profile that it has today. The costs associated with dealing with social services matters has grown. I was with one local authority yesterday who’s overspend on social services now, this week, nowhere near the end of the financial cycle is over £3 million. And this is happening everywhere. The proportion of 65’s will rise from 8% to 12½% by 2035. We have to order our society in order to be able to deal with that fact. We have to be able to change our services to be able to cope with those new circumstances.
Surplus school places – there will be 46,000 fewer pupils in the school system in Wales by 2013. We have an ageing population, young children are declining. We’ve got all of these schools out there which again, this invokes such passion in people, what do you do about schools. There was a study produced yesterday by a leading academic which said it really doesn’t matter too much, it’s probably in the interest of the pupil to move from a miniscule school – which is what they are in English terms, to a small school of 100 pupils, but immediately everybody was coming out and saying no, no, no and it’s not just about the academic things – it’s about social infrastructure. It’s about maintaining communities, sustaining communities. It’s about language, culture – and it is difficult when you pick those things but when you have to make practical and hard choices I’m afraid that’s what has to be done.
Climate Change – the inconvenient truth which is now dawning on us. Hardly a day goes past without the media being full of some dire prediction about climate change. The inconvenient truth that man’s activities are beginning to affect this planet. It’s not the sad plight of polar bears without ice to romp on, it’s going to affect individuals here as well. It’s going to affect us in relation to the environment, in relation to coastal erosion, in relation to longer, milder, wetter winters.
